Taking the risk, paying the price: East Timorese vote in Ermera

Abstract This personal account of the events surrounding the United Nations ballot in East Timor on 30 August 1999 is written by an Australian whom the United Nations posted as a political assessment officer to the mountainous Ermera district south of Dili. The account, which covers the period between mid June and early September 1999, reveals a society that is remarkably unanimous in its rejection of Indonesian rule. This account is sharply at odds with portrayals made by Indonesian officialdom, in which the East Timorese are deeply divided between those favoring and those rejecting the Indonesian presence. The present account reveals the determined efforts of the entire range of Indonesian officials, both military and civilian, to stimulate conflict within East Timorese society by artificially boosting the pro-Indonesian side. Most obvious among these efforts were the militias, but they extended to pressuring civil servants, jailing independence leaders, vigorously asserting dubious legal arguments, and denying campaign opportunities to the independence side. That these efforts failed can primarily be attributed to the breadth of support for the independence side. Their supporters included students, “two-faced” civil servants, priests and nuns, and of course the hitherto invisible guerrilla army. Although it was constantly denied a public space, the independence campaign was effective because it conducted itself peacefully and with great restraint.